This spring is shaping up to be an unusually warm and stormy season for Australia, with some parts of the country also likely to see an increased risk of fires. Australia has entered spring off the back of its warmest August and second warmest winter on record. The end of winter was also very dry […]
August 2024 across Australia was the warmest on record by a considerable margin, with a mean average temperature that was 3.02°C above the long-term average, while the 2024 winter was the second-warmest on record nationwide. That’s an entire month that was three degrees warmer than average when you factor in both minimum and maximum temps […]
New data from Berkeley Earth reveals that Earth’s hottest July on record makes it virtually certain that 2024 will become our planet’s hottest year in recorded history. According to the data from Berkeley Earth, the global average temperature in July 2024 was 1.58°C above the 1850 to 1900 average. This is on par with the […]
Earth’s Southern Hemisphere just experienced a 23-day run of record-breaking warmth, with air temperatures running about 1°C above average and at levels more typical of mid-spring than the middle of winter. Values from the ECMWF Reanalysis 5 (ERA5) dataset show that the Southern Hemisphere set new surface air temperature records every day between July 19 […]
There are signs that another sudden stratospheric warming episode could occur above Antarctica towards the end of August, increasing the likelihood that the Southern Hemisphere’s polar vortex will continue to be disrupted into September. This event could have an ongoing influence on Australia’s weather patterns this spring. What is Sudden Stratospheric Warming? Sudden stratospheric warming […]
Stretching high above Earth’s North and South Poles are two swirling columns of extremely cold air encircled by powerful winds. These whirlpools of frigid air and wind are each called the polar vortex, and they can have a big influence on weather patterns across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. What is a polar vortex? A […]
It got seriously cold at times in Australia in July, with Tasmania experiencing a deep freeze in the first week of July as the tiny town of Liawenee dipped to –13.5°C. Other parts of the country also saw extremes of cold, but overall, Australia was much warmer than usual with a nationally averaged temperature that […]
Several cold fronts will batter southern parts of Australia this week, bringing much needed rain to areas that have seen record low rainfall this year. During the last year, stubborn high pressure systems sitting over southern Australia have forced cold fronts and rain bearing systems south. This led to parts of South Australia, Tasmania […]
Ongoing stratospheric warming above Antarctica looks set to influence weather patterns across the Southern Hemisphere into August as a strong negative Southern Annular Mode (SAM) takes shape. The atmosphere above East Antarctica started to warm abruptly during the middle of July. This warming initially started in the polar stratosphere, around 30-40km above East Antarctica, but […]
Australia’s tropical cyclone season is officially underway, but we may not see much activity for few months yet. The season runs from November to April, and for mining operators and businesses across northern Australia, 2026-27 is shaping up to be a season where the headline numbers and the real risk may not line up. On […]
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole is underway, but this one is unlikely to deliver the textbook dry spring and summer that businesses have come to expect from the pattern. The Bureau of Meteorology officially declared a positive IOD on Tuesday, October 27, which typically like El Niño can cause drier and warmer conditions over parts of […]
Waters off Indonesia have cooled in recent weeks, an indication that a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event could be developing. It’s an important climate driver for Australia, and it could shape rainfall and temperatures heading into summer, with flow-on effects for farmers, energy and other industries. What is the Indian Ocean Dipole? The IOD […]
Leonora, WA, had its wettest September day on record earlier this month. Three weeks later, more than 1.3 million lightning pulses were detected within 800 km of the town in 48 hours. Why is a stalled trough delivering storms to mining country, and what it could mean for operations? The DTN Total Lightning Network detected […]
